While bike sharing has great potential, the credit-card requirement and other factors have been obstacles to attracting a diverse membership in other cities. In Denver, where roughly fifty percent of residents are people of color, almost ninety percent of bike-share users are non-Hispanic whites, according to a member survey. “Our demographic profile is nothing to be proud of, and we know that,” acknowledged Parry Burnap, head of Denver’s program, at a recent urban planning conference. “We are mostly male, mostly white, mostly wealthy, mostly well educated.”

CDOT deputy commissioner Scott Kubly helped launch Capital Bikeshare in Washington, D.C., and he’s managing Chicago’s new system. When I called to ask how he’ll ensure bike-share membership here mirrors our city’s ethnic and economic mix, he acknowledged this was also an issue in D.C. “Growing bike share will be easy in some parts of Chicago,” he says. “So I’m really focused on building membership in parts of town where it will be hardest.”

“The big challenge is how do we handle liability for folks who are unbanked,” Kubly adds. In D.C. this issue was addressed via the Bank on D.C. initiative, in which low-income residents received a free Capital Bikeshare membership after completing a financial literacy course. Liability for the membership was shared by the individual, the city, a bank and Alta Bicycle Share, the Portland, Oregon-based company that runs the D.C. system and will be operating Chicago’s as well. He’s currently looking into partnering with community organizations and churches here to provide bike share access for people who don’t have credit cards.

Chicago is also making efforts to supply a broad spectrum of neighborhoods with plenty of bike-share stations, Greenfield reports. In addition, the city has developed a program to train low-income youth for some of the 150 jobs the new system is expected to create.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Spacing Toronto says that erstwhile Mayor Rob Ford’s undoing was simply his inability to follow the rules. The Greater Marin advises readers to just avoid walking in Sonoma County, where not only are the roads dangerous but the police department policy seems to blame cyclists and pedestrians in the event of a collision. And the Political Environment shares an example of what passes for an air quality program in too many government agencies around the country.

many cities give students discounted metrocards…. has any thought about applying that to bike share as one small way to whittle away the stereotypical user being “mostly male, mostly white, mostly wealthy, mostly well educated.”

Steven H

It’s my understanding that some employers here in DC have been offering bikeshare memberships to some of their employees (mine doesn’t).

The city isn’t at all opposed to subsidizing the $97 yearly membership fee (the equivalent of offering a discounted metrocard), and that’s part of the reason that bikeshare membership fees were so crazy-low (like $34) early on; however, the bikeshare company also needs a credit card on file so that it can charge the user $1000 if he or she loses (or totals) the bike. Hence the need to get people banked first.

Confronting hipster biking stereotypes is the city government’s equivalent of a “white people problem;” helping the unbanked is a far more important issue for DC, and I’m really glad that the folks at Capital Bikeshare have been part of the solution.

Anonymous

The issue with bike share schemes is not as much as lowering the use fees, but creating a mechanism that ensures ability to collect money if a bike is not returned or damaged. And people from very low income backgrounds don’t usually have bank cards (the easiest way) or even money available for a security one-time deposit fully refundable upon ending the membership (second best option) that can be used as a “guarantee” for taking the bikes.

Physical losses on bike share are quite high. In Barcelona, 30% of the bicycle stock was seriously damaged (not a flat tire…) or stolen over the first 14 months of their program. Paris suffered an even worse fate with the Vélib.

So unless cities are willing to charge higher for those who pay and force them to cross-subsidize more losses as it can’t collect money from, say, a 19-year old young woman that comes from a very low-income background and lives paycheck to paycheck, I don’t see what kind of solutions are possible.

Maybe people should be required to have some insurance if they can’t pay deposits?

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America's transportation system is half a century behind--causing unnecessary pollution, expense, and congestion. We need our leaders to invest in public transportation, high-speed passenger rail, streets safe for biking and walking, maintaining our roads and transit systems, and green innovation.